Hurricane Reef Raspberry Wheat Ale

Brewed by Florida Beer Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Melbourne, Florida USA

12oz bonus from daknole. Pours orangey with a tan head. Nose is pretty nicely razzy. Taste is sweet, fruity, and far better than I would have guessed. Not bad for the style.

daknole likes sending this out! Musta had 5 left from the 6er. Thanks Dak for the local brew. Crystal clear orange amber color. Light head dissipated to nothing. Scent is super-strong raspberry. Some clove and vanilla maybe. Taste is sweet fruit then bitter. Nothing offensive. My wife loved it. She called it "a total chick beer". I’d be willing to crack one of these at a warm summer Bbq with tiki torches. Would never have tried this without a trade, so it’s a good beer.

Orange amber color with a thin off white head. Nose of raspberry and cotton candy. It reminded me of the blue part of a bomb pop. The raspberry flavor dominates this beer, but it does not have the artificial taste that ruins many raspberry beers. Light wheaty mouthfeel. If you really like raspberry, this is your beer.

Brought this bottle back from Miami and wish I wouldn’ta wasted the jet fuel on it. Poured a light head and no lace. Medium amber color with some red highlights. Aroma is SMACK ME DOWN raspberry extract. Flavor is dry raspberry extract. Couldn’t finish it. Yucky medicine aftertaste. Not Florida’s finest beer.

Thanks daknole. Nice fresh raspberry aroma. Pours a clear amber orange, developing a full yellowish head with good retention and lace. In the mouth, the raspberries are overshadowed by an unclean, papery malt profile. Off aftertaste. Medium body, smooth, but still somewhat off.

Bottle thanks to daknole. Very clear reddish-orange with a thin off white head. Strong fresh picked raspberry aroma. Smooth bodied wheaty with little little taste aside from a nice raspberry taste that reminds of artificial raspberry popsicles.

I wanted to like this beer, I really did. Fruit flavored or infused beers are slowly growing in appreciation and respect and I was looking forward to a potentially good new arrival to the scene. Well, new for me at least; the Hurricane Reef Raspberry Wheat has been around for a while. I enjoy supporting native Florida craft brewers and breweries, but only so far as their beers are good. No amount of native Floridian pride can save one from my scorn when the beer is so horridly bad.
She poured with a decent head which fades into a scattered showing of foamy puffs on top of her amber orange body. Without even holding her glass up to my nose, a sickly artificially sweet aroma of raspberry syrup finds her way to my olfactory senses. Normally I wouldn’t mind an aromatic onslaught of fresh raspberries, but instead sugary sweet, artificial fruit flavored syrup is what i get instead. A metallic bite finishes the nose off, and in wary trepidation I raise my glass for the first quaff. Sweet. Super sweet and reeking of artificial sugars and bar syrup is my first impression. In a 1-2 punch, right after the initial sweet lurks a decomposing mess of acidic bitter metallic taste and an ever growing rotten fruit essence. The metallic and rotten aftertaste lingers long after each sip, making it very hard to go for the next quaff, much less look forward to it. A few more quaffs and nothing changes. As the rotten fruit, artificial sugars, and metallic tang linger and build, I find myself unable to finish my glass and perform one of a very few drain pours I have ever done. I see no further improvement in my quaffing future so I see no further need to make my senses suffer any more than they have.
I am very disappointed as I really did have high hopes for the Raspberry Wheat from Hurricane Reef. Being summertime in Florida is a good 11 months out of the year, a refreshing fruit wheat beer is always welcome. Should anyone ever try to invite said brew into my humble abode, they will get turned away at the door, and pronto.

12oz bottle acquired in trade with daknole (thanks!). Poured a medium and slightly hazy orange color with an averaged sized off white head. Lots of raspberries in the aromas. Extract and artificial. Tastes of raspberries (less than aromas) and wheat. Some lacing left on the glass.